Application of Satellite Remote Sensing for Identification of Irrigated Lands in the Newlands Project (abstract)

As one element of Operating Criteria and Procedures for the Newlands Project in west-central Nevada, the Bureau of Reclamation has compiled an irrigation water rights spatial data base. In 1984, color infrared aerial photography was obtained and used to identify irrigated lands in the project. The photo interpretations were digitized to integrate them with water right maps for the project, which had similarly been digitized. Bench and bottom land designations, a soil type distinction of consequence for legal water entitlements, were recorded from maps as well. The data base was used to calculate and summarize in tables, on a section-by-section basis, acreages of irrigated lands with water rights, irrigated lands without water rights, and non-irrigated water-righted land. Multispectral digital imagery of the project acquired by the Thermatic Mapper instrument on Landsat-5 was used to update the irrigated lands theme of the data base. Derivative images were interpreted at an interactive video display providing a variety of enhancement capabilities. New acreage tabulations were prepared by digitally overlaying the revised coverages.